CC, our very own dogcow

After 177 days, we are once again a family of three.  There is the pitter patter of little feet in the apartment.

We spent the last 6 months grieving over our beloved asshole Kuma.  2020 has been an unbelievably shit year for us, and we didn't think we would have another dog in the house until at least next year.  Hello Kitty had thought about getting a dog from an ethical breeder outside Hong Kong, as both dogs she had adopted in Hong Kong ended up with severe health problems and left her too young.  

As we wouldn't be able to travel to these groomers until some time in 2021, we were resigned to only looking at cute dogs on Instagram.  We discussed the breed of dog we would get, with Bichon Frise, West Highland White Terrier, and Coton de Tuléar - all white dog breeds, incidentally - being the front runners.

Recently, though, Hello Kitty began fielding calls on dogs needing adoption, and on a Saturday in late November, we made the trek out to a volunteer shelter in Sai Kung to check out a brown poodle mix.  While we spent time among the 20 or so dogs there, Hello Kitty noticed a mutt who she thought was very cute.  She was shy but would quietly come up to us, looking for attention without demanding it.

We were told that the mutt named Cheung Zai (腸仔) - Cantonese for wiener - has been at the shelter for a few months without anyone showing interest in her.  Meanwhile, the dog we went to see had at least 3 families showing interest, and a decision would have to be made regarding which family would get him.  

Hello Kitty pretty much changed her mind right away.  One of the reasons why we prefer to adopt is to make sure that we can save a life, and that we can give an animal a loving home that it otherwise wouldn't have.  And it seemed very obvious that the mutt is the one who would need our love more, as she hadn't managed to attract interest for months.  

Two days after meeting her for the first time, Hello Kitty picked up our 2-year-old mutt, took her for a bath, and brought her home.

She needed a new name, as Cheung Zai sounds too masculine and we have a girl.  We briefly considered calling her Clarus - the famed dogcow created along with the first Apple Macintosh.  After all, she DOES look like a dogcow.  But we decided against this one, although we keep referring to her as our dogcow...

To us, she looked like a tub of cookies 'n cream ice cream, as she's got a few large black spots along with a smattering of smaller dark spots which remind us of how Oreo cookies are mixed into the vanilla ice cream.  But Cookies 'n Cream sounds like a mouthful, so I proposed that we shorten it to CC, which also sounds like CiCi, or 詩詩 in Cantonese.  The more we looked at her, the more we thought she looked like cookies 'n cream.  And our friends seemed to concur.

The question we get asked a lot is about her breed.  We have no idea other than she's a mutt, but frankly we don't care.  All that matters is that she has a good temperament and that she loves us.  And we love her and will offer her a good home for the rest of her life.

It's been a few days since she came home, and already she's a lot happier and confident than when we first got her.  CC is a really sweet girl, who is very calm and mild-mannered.  She is content just to hang with us and stay by our side.  

A few weeks ago, Hello Kitty happened to come across this plastic Snoopy-themed doghouse, and she decided she couldn't pass up the chance of buying it for her future fur baby.  This has served as a shelter for CC since her first night with us, and she certainly feels safe in that space.

The other place she likes to hang out - besides on the sofa with us - is on Kuma's bro.  Kuma used to love sleeping on his bro, and as CC also likes to sleep there sometimes, we have now moved it into our bedroom so she can sleep in the same room at night.

CC can be pretty demanding in terms of attention, which isn't surprising considering that she probably didn't have a real loving home during her first two years.  She is constantly coming up to us and flipping on her side, showing us her belly and asking us to scratch it.  The nurses at the vet clinic call it "parking (泊車)", and it's something that CC probably does at least 20 times a day.  In fact, it's the very first thing she does when we wake up.  

But besides "parking", there's also the occasional "crashing (炒車)".  This happens when we are walking and CC runs after us, eventually overtaking and getting ahead of us, before suddenly falling in front and showing us her belly.  She's just eager for attention.

We joke that she's a "village girl (村姑)", because she did spend a lot of time in the countryside, and she absolutely loves to go up and smell grass and any kind of plants or flowers.  We know she's happiest in this environment because her tail just goes straight up and stays up...

By now we know that CC has been sent to us by Kuma, because she is also a picky eater.  Hello Kitty has decided not to give CC a diet consisting mostly of kibbles, so now she makes fresh food twice a day for our fur baby.  And we are now slowly finding out what she won't eat - and will pick out of her bowl the way asshole Kuma used to.  We'll be more careful in what we feed our dog this time around, and it may be a while before she gets her first taste of durian...

Our journey together awaits.